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Higher replacement rates often imply higher levels of absenteeism, yet even in generous welfare economies, employers provide sick pay in addition to the public sick pay. Using comparative population-representative workplace data for Britain and Norway, we show that close to 50% of private sector employers in both countries provide sick pay in excess of statutory sick pay. However, the level of statutory sick pay is also much higher in Norway than in Britain. In both countries, private sick pay as well as other benefits provided by employers are chosen by employers in a way that maximizes profits having accounted for different dimensions of labor costs. Several health-related privately provided benefits are often bundled. In both countries easy-to-train workers, high turnover and risky work are linked to less extensive employer provision of extended sick leave and sick pay in excess of statutory sick pay. In contrast, the presence of a trade union agreement is strongly correlated with both the provision of private sick pay and extended sick leave in Britain but not in Norway. We show that the sickness absence rate is much higher in Norway than in Britain. However, the higher level of absenteeism in Norway compared to Britain relates to the threshold for statutory sick pay in the Norwegian public sick pay legislation. When we take this difference into account, no significant difference remains.

This chapter examines the evolution of the number of days spent on sick leave following the 2011 reform which halved the maximum sick benefit provided by statutory health insurance in Hungary. This policy change sharply decreased benefits for a large group of high earners, while leaving the incentive to claim sickness benefits unchanged for lower earners, providing us with a “quasi-experimental” setup to identify the incentives effect of sickness benefits. We use a difference-in-differences type methodology to evaluate the short-term effect of the reform. We rely on high-quality administrative data and analyze a sample comprised of prime-age male employees with high earnings and stable employment. Our results show that the number of days spent on sick leave fell substantially for those experiencing the full halving of benefits. Estimating the response of the number of sick days with respect to the fall in potential sickness benefits, we find a significant elasticity of −0.45.

The purpose of this paper is to examine potential differences in identity commitment and career success perceptions between casually and permanently employed nurses. Specifically, it aims to investigate whether casually employed nurses have lower levels of commitment to their professional identity, as compared to permanently employed nurses, and whether this in turn negatively affects their perceptions of career success.

Role identity theory was used to predict the career success perceptions of casually employed (n=181) versus permanently employed (n=476) nurses. Data were collected via a self‐report questionnaire.

The data revealed that casual nurses had lower levels of identity commitment and more negative career success perceptions. Affective commitment fully mediated the relationship between employment status and subjective career success.

Future studies should test the replicability of these findings with longitudinal data.

This paper provides novel insights to the temporary employment and careers literatures. Given the previously uncharted territory of understanding the role of identity in the career success perceptions of different categories of workers, it opens avenues for future research, while also answering theoretical questions about the identity and career consequences of temporary employment.

Suggests that this study may be recognized as a contribution to the lack of economic evaluations of investments in health promotion programmes. Also contributes to the evaluation of the Swedish work life experiment in the beginning of the 1990s, and the establishment of the Swedish Work Life Fund (SWLF). States that perceptions of the profitability of investments in work life‐oriented rehabilitation, including changes in work organization, changes in work methods and competence development, were investigated in 108 randomly selected organizations. The findings indicate that the investments, which were partly financed by grants from the SWLF, contributed to a reduction in sick‐leave and an increase in productivity. The median value of the pay‐back period was estimated to be 3.0 years. Public organizations, a considerable number of employees, a high percentage of women employees, a significant reduction in sick‐leave and an ongoing organizational change, are some of the characteristics of investments with a short pay‐back period. Concludes that the findings further indicate that grants from the SWLF were an important factor in the initial implementation of investments.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).

Performance pay is growing in importance. Even in a centralised economy such as the Norwegian economy, the prevalence of performance pay has increased significantly from 1997 to 2003, and internationally changes in payment methods also occur increasingly. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how performance pay and team organisation and the interaction between these affect publicly‐financed sickness absences of workers.

Standard panel and cross‐section non‐linear and linear regression techniques are applied to Norwegian panel register and questionnaire data on private sector workers and workplaces during 1996‐2005.

Team organisation and performance pay are found to be negatively related to sickness absence incidence rates and sick days, partly due to strong negative relationships in workplaces providing jointly performance pay and team organisation. The negative effect of performance pay on sickness absence survives even when fixed job effects are taken into account. The negative effects were stronger for weak incentives than stronger, and they are primarily related to group‐based incentive schemes.

Introducing weak group‐based incentive schemes might be one way to successfully tackle absenteeism for firms.

The paper's findings contribute to the growing literature on how performance pay and team organisation affect absenteeism.

Knight's Industrial Law Reports goes into a new style and format as Managerial Law This issue of KILR is restyled Managerial Law and it now appears on a continuous updating basis rather than as a monthly routine affair.

Reimbursement of the Israeli sick funds, whose status as both insurers and providers of health care is unique, warrants much attention. The paper deals with the issue in detail. Four main channels for reimbursement are discussed: premium payment from members, co‐payments from members, parallel tax payments from the members' employer, and direct government subsidies. For each source, pros and cons are evaluated and suggestions are made for improvement of the reimbursement process in the future.

Discusses the long existing and confusing problems of establishing the relationship of who is, and who if not, a dependent worker. Reflects developments which have occurred in British law as it affects the employment field, plus an evaluation and analysis of some of the different types of employment relationships which have evolved by examining, where possible, the status of each of these relationships. Concludes that the typical worker nowadays finds himself in a vulnerable position both economically and psychologically owing to the insecurity which exists.